Chad Evans has arrived at WLFI, and you can now view his weather blog at:

http://blogs.wlfi.com/category/chads-wlfi-weather-blog/

Please stop by and welcome Chad to the area ! He is looking forward to hearing from all of you and getting to know WLFI’s viewers better.

Mike’s blog is being retired but will remain up at it’s current address for a brief period.

Front row: Left to Right: Randy Rogers (Frankfort), Dena Flanagan (Wyandotte Road), Yours Truly, Teri (Lafayette), Kandy Teel (Chalmers), and Charlotte (Monon). Back Row: Left to Right: Mark (Monticello), Richard Beedle (Attica), Mary Anne Best (Remington), and Justin New (Lafayette) We also had Mark and Madelyn from Kokomo that came by to celebrate!

Yes! Lightning, heavy rain, and chicken are the big weather stories today! I wanted to thank Chick-Fil-A and manager Shawn Haynie for giving me the nicest going away party one could ever ask for. Chick-Fil-A has always been closely tied to the Prangley family. My girls loved eating there off of State Road 26 in Lafayette and of course playing in their indoor playground with the cool slides and tree house. I would usually take my daughters there to eat after going to the library to pick up or return books. I was very lucky to do this first with Megan, then Abbey, and finally Lauren. They all loved doing this with Dad before each of them started Pre-School or Kindergarten. It was one thing all my daughters looked forward to doing with Dad before I went to work in the afternoon. Then of course I would hand the kids off to Mom in the parking lot and then she took over from there. Those were the days!!

It was a special evening I will never forget and I wanted to thank Manager Shawn Haynie you see above who is quite the weather buff himself for making this happen and of course the cow. Chick-Fil-A did this out of appreciation of all the community service I was involved in here in our area  since it is so highly valued by their company. But I really did not deserve all this because it is just part of my job, but my weather watchers and bloggers did deserve this so I was very happy for them. I know I have the best bloggers, weatherwatchers, and viewers in the country! The food was great and we were all treated like royalty. Thanks so much Chick-Fil-A! It is an evening I will never forget and I am glad there are Chick-Fil-A restaurants in Florida!

The good news is that we all got home before the big lightning show in the sky lit up the area and the heavy downpours. Beware of a quick one to two inches of rainfall from areas of Williamsport and Attica through Shadeland, the Southside of Lafayette to Romney, Stockwell, and Clarks Hill to Frankfort. This rain will really pound the area for the next couple of hours and not taper off until about 4 a.m.  Latest lightning tracker is picking up mainly cloud to cloud lightning. No severe weather is expected but be careful of ponding of water on the roadways. Our Friday should at least feature many rain-free hours despite the clouds before another round of rain moves in during the evening and overnight.

This is only fitting that we have some excitement on my last night here. We have officially gone down in the record books as the sixth wettest April on record with 6.20″ of rain. You see Ellie Blackburn, the Boxer above. She loves jumping into my convertible when the top is down but in this pattern Ellie will have to wait for quite some time. We may not see a sunny and warm day with highs in the 70s until Tuesday. Ellie is one of three dogs that have taken me in over the past couple of weeks and I wanted to thank the Blackburns for their wonderful hospitality and all the wonderful families across the area that opened their homes for me and fed me between shows since the middle of April! A special thanks to the Blann family and Angie Blann. She has five kids and they are such a beautiful family. By eating with her family on a few occasions over the past couple of weeks it was really refreshing. Her family is so wonderful and they are all lucky to have such a great Mom like her that not only can cook scrumptious meals but does whatever it takes to make sure all of her kids are happy. I enjoyed helping Sydney with her homework and yes even hanging out with her three boys! It was different in a good way!! Thanks Angie!! Now my goal is to send you sunny and warmer weather from Florida and I will do that for you I promise!

But it may take some time! There is a stalemate in the atmosphere and we are squeezed between two high pressures. They will fight it out over us the next 7 to 10 days with more unsettled weather, but eventually the Bermuda high will win and I still think we heat up and dry out in a hurry as we head into the second week of May. It will be near 90 in Jacksonville this weekend and it will eventually get here! Before then though we will have to watch the Wabash closely with more flooding likely. Tune in tonight for the latest on this and your weekend forecast.

My big dilemma tonight is I need a two hour show to thank everybody in this community and tell you how much you mean to me. But for the regular bloggers and weather watchers on here I am sure you know how special you are to me and I look forward to keeping in touch. I lived my dream and it was beyond my wildest dreams thanks to you and a place that will always be special to me!  I will set up a new blog in the near future!

In the meantime, you can follow me at http://twitter.com/MikePrangley. It is time to go and my forecast is for a bright future for all of us. Look me up if you are ever on the First Coast or headed to the beach! I will take a walk with you anytime! I LOVE YOU GREATER LAFAYETTE!! THE PRANGLEY FAMILY  LOVES YOU!!

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You see Abbey Prangley on the left and her friend Taryn Weber on the right after a soccer game. My daughter Abbey is certainly fun to be around and no birthday card at the grocery store or at Hallmark can even begin to tell you what she means to me! I am in awe of my daughter Abbey and she certainly is a gift from God. It is like God picked a bright star from the sky and made her mine to love and cherish forever.

Abbey, your pure energy is unsurpassed and you will always be a bright and shining light in my life.

Abbey you have changed the world like a bolt of lightning out of the blue since you were born in Lafayette on April 30, 1999. I have been partying since it is like 1999 for 10 years now since you came into my life.

Yes, we have had some stormy times as well but even in the worst of storms your loving spirit wins out and chases all of the clouds away. It is a thing of beauty like a rainbow in the sky.

Remember if you believe in yourself you can accomplish anything and as your Dad I will see to it that you always know how special you are and will always be there for you.

There is no love like a Dad’s love for his daughter, especially when her name is Abbey Mary Prangley. I may not be able to see you in person today but just know I will be thinking of you all day, know how lucky I am to be your Dad and that I am very proud of you.

We have a lot to look forward to when I come see you in Florida which is now only a couple days away. We will celebrate your birthday all week long. We can go for a nice long walk on the beach, go get some ice cream and even go to a movie if you want. It does not matter, as long as I am with you again.

Now you know that as much as you miss me today it does even begin to compare to how much I miss you.

You can always remember that on your 10th birthday you found out how you and your father are inseparable no matter how far apart we are and how special you are to so many people including your mother and sisters. I love you Abbey!

I know that Abbey’s birthday present this year is she does not have to worry about any thunderstorms. It will be sunny with highs in the lower 80s today in Jacksonville. My forecast for Lafayette today is her least favorite weather. She knows what Indiana weather can do and went to many of my weather talks at schools while growing up. She has been known to yell down the street at neighbors to get to their safe spot and in their homes when tornado sirens have gone off. She also makes it to her safe spot in record time. Just ask our old neighbors with a basement. The Williams family told me how she looks like a blur when she runs down into their basement. Now today I do not see any of us having to take cover in basements like Abbey does or lower level interior rooms but we do have a chance of an isolated gusty storm or two. I think our best chance of severe weather may hold off until Friday, but again here in Indiana timing is very tough with these storms and we will be ready both today and tomorrow. Weather Team 18 is in storm mode until further notice and will keep you updated. You see the Supercell Index above showing areas with the highest potential of strong storms today. Stay tuned! Flooding will also be a concern and you can see why. Check out the top five wettest Aprils on record.

We have a chance to push out 1972 on the list above! Will we do it? Just another thing to tune in for! Be careful out there please and keep on blogging. I have a few more pictures below that I dug out while packing some stuff up at the station yesterday. I was like Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation up in the attic being all sentimental. That is what I am best at and why I will always keep in touch with my Indiana family that includes all of my bloggers and viewers. You know I will!!

We did do a lot of bowling for Junior Achivement over the years and it is the community involvement that really makes this station special.

Meeting Lafayette weather legend Arthur Russell was one experience I will never forget. I really gave all I had when it came to our weather each and every show because I knew I had to live up not to just my high standards but to build on a great foundation that those before me helped to establish. This is the little station that can and will!! GO WLFI!

The MDA Telethon was certainly something I looked forward to helping out with every year and it was amazing how every year we kept talking about all the advances. What started out as a dream to help make a better life and cure over 40 neuromuscular diseases is now becoming a reality. It is a good example of what this community is all about. It is a community that is very giving and this hoosier hospitality makes a positive difference for so many!

I certainly do not want to leave out all the pets that watch us! That is right I have had dozens of letters and pictures sent in over the years of animals that watch our newscasts. This cat absolutely loved our late show and would not go to bed until after the weather was finished. Smart cat!!

Speaking of animals….here is a nice shot of most of our Columbian Park Friends of the Zoo Board..I have served on this board since 2003 and take great pride in all the new exhibits and educational outreach programs we have helped to fund! The future is bright and you better believe I will be back for the 7th Annual Zoo Run Run on July 18th this summer! I will see you there and cannot wait!

Here are the words of wisdom for today. April showers and thunderstorms will bring May flowers. Yes! We really have not had any severe weather reports of significance since February 11th and most of that wind damage occurred outside of thunderstorms but that could change over the next few days. You see above that flooding, damaging wind gusts, and lightning are the main risks for us as we head into Thursday and Friday. This upcoming system is a wake-up call that we are in severe weather season and it will really start to crank up by the middle of May through the end of June. We are quickly heading into an El Nino pattern that favors below average tornado activity for our area but I still see a least a couple twisters as things really start to heat up.  Watch out for the middle of May and early June. Until then we certainly can have severe weather but flooding on area rivers will be my main concern. You can clearly see why!

Take a look at one of the wettest April’s on record with over five inches of rain. By time we finish the month of April some areas will have twice their normal rainfall with more heavy rain in the forecast by late tonight.  How does this stack up against other stormy Aprils? I will have the official stats for tonight’s newscast and post it on the blog later this evening.

The severe weather threat over the next couple of days is marginal and I am not expecting any widespread severe weather but I am not ruling out possible quarter size hail and an isolated damaging wind gust. I am not sold on us have a weather watch box at this time but it is still early in the game and the models do not do well handling severe weather this far out. So we will play wait and see and have plenty of updates on here and Twitter!

The final countdown continues with only 3 more days on-air for me here at WLFI and I just wanted to show a few pictures of all of some great folks that mean the world to me. Doing weather here at WLFI really was the icing on the cake. The best part of my 10 years here was all the great people that I got to know in our great community! Check out all the great folks at the March for Babies on Saturday with over 80,000 dollars raised.

This is the volunteerism capital of our country and is what makes our community special. People here are always willing to lend a helping hand no matter what the economy is doing. I think we were toughened up by nature and that helping spirit is alive and well in all of us that have lived in this special community! I cannot even begin to thank you for all your support! I would love to stay with all of you but my wife and family really do need me and I need them.  I really need them!! Take a look at why below!

You know I love working out and you can usually find me at the gym when I am not at work, but without my family I have worked out twice as much and twice as hard. This is how I have dealt with missing them so much. Check out all my running clothes drying in the WLFI parking lot. That is right! I have learned to survive on my own or have I? Hmmmmmm…… The wind almost blew a few of my clothes away and want to thank our Chief Engineer Mark Brooks for tracking them down. Please do not tell Julie about this. I will never hear the end of it! I want to thank my wife for understanding I needed a little more time in Indiana! My kids are climbing the walls and my dog keeps running around looking for me. The good news is the Prangley family will be back to visit and certainly keep in touch! This will always be our home away from home. I have always felt at home here thanks to you. Here are a few pics of my peeps!!!

Here is former Sports Director Clayton Duffy, WLFI News Anchor Gina Quattrocchi, and yours truly sharing a few moments at lunch last week. I think we laughed the whole time. The goofy shades I wore certainly did the trick and when I somehow could not find my wallet you know that GG or Gina had my back! I owe her and Josh a dinner down in Florida! Clayton will always be my BUUUUUUUUUBBBBBBB!

Here is a picture of Teresa Yocum and I! Mike and Teresa Yocum were those great neighbors you always wished you had. Julie and I lived the dream by having them as neighbors and I will miss showing all of her delicious treats on television. She brought my favorite treat to WLFI yesterday…that is right LEMON SQUARES…I had 3 big pieces. Mike wore his Cardinals pull-over and got a big response from Mike Cleff and my News Director Chris Morisse since they are also Cardinal fans. Speaking of Mike….you ever wonder what goes on during commercials on the set. We are really like a family. Niccole Caan, Jeff Smith, and Mike Cleff got a kick out of my weather props!!

Man, I will need to post about a hundred more pictures to just scrape the surface of all the people that mean so much to me! Here are a couple more! Thanks Lafayette!

The production folks really make our TV world go around at WLFI. Here is the famous Bryan Cantwell to my left and rocker Kevin Baum to my right. You like my tennis shoes. I still occasionally wear these still on the air since I am always on the run.

From left to right you have Kate Kelty our videographer extraordinaire, especially during the Golden Snow Shovel contest, producer Jenna Emenheiser who is also an award winning journalist and reporter, Kristen Crowley in the foreground showing her smiling face and we all know about her amazing singing voice. Erin is in the background and she is one of our web-masters that allows us to have fun here on the blog! Thanks Erin!

I will post more friends pictures but better at least get a few hours sleep before I run in the morning. Yes, I still have not had my running fill and will also head to body pump with Mel! She will help me shape up before I ship out that is for sure!

We had four consecutive days of 80 degrees or above in Lafayette in the month of April from last Friday through yesterday. This is something we have only done 3 times since 1930. The last time we accomplished this amazing feat was in 1990.  The squirrels that had been so active for the past several weeks trying to gather food and stay warm. But this past weekend the heat wore them out! They were just plain exhausted. Helen Pettet took this picture and Mariane Shields wrote in and told me that this squirrel was enjoying the lazy and hazy days of April by waiting for Grandpa Roger to fill the bird feeder and he was tired of waiting so he took a nap! Today will not be a day for squirrels or us humans to nap out in the open as some cooler and wetter weather greets us on our Tuesday. Temperatures will be back down to April levels with a chilly northeast breeze developing.

Speaking of wind, Brianna McCormick sent in this beautiful picture of the Benton County wind farm and it certainly did look more like the hazy days of June or July out there over the weekend. Yesterday we had wind gusts of 36 mph but today the wind will be much easier to take with gusts closer to 20 mph. Some folks told me they were worried there little dogs would blow away on their dog walks and they may have if they were not on their leashes….lol.

The wind was caused by the huge Bermuda high pressure we normally see in the summer off the southeast coast interacting with low pressure and a cold front to our west. This high pressure is finally weakening and its influence waning so the wind will be much lighter with better dog walking conditions. It may have been windy yesterday but this high pressure or wind machine allowed us to dodge severe weather. Our blog questions of the day: When will our severe weather season crank up? Since we are due for another big one do I think this is the year we see it? I will have those answers coming up here on the blog and on the newscasts tonight.  I will check in before then on twitter…. http://twitter.com/MikePrangley

Morel mushroom update!! Do you think the 6 pound morel mushroom on Friday’s blog was a false morel? Here is another perspective on what we may have seen on Friday’s blog. I re-posted the picture above! Here is the e-mail forwarded to me by Pamela and what her friend Chris thought of the morel.

Here is the truth about that huge 6 lb morel.  A false morel has a solid stem and not a hollow stem.  This is from Chris Matherly in WR GA who is in in indiana now and he saw it.  I think that one of his peeps found it. I am in Indiana right now, saw the mushroom in person, it was a Gyromitra! False Morel

Sincerely,
Chris matherly
http://www.morelmushroomhunting.com

What is your take on all this? I am still not sure this is a false morel. Maybe we need to do an investigative story on this. Where is the WLFI I-Team when  you need it?

Here is my new twitter account you can follow me on: http://twitter.com/MikePrangley

Get ready for a windy and warm Monday with some wind gusts near 40 mph this afternoon. What a weekend! This picture tells the story! Our Chief Videographer Tom Harmeson spent his time wisely with a great fishing excursion in Parke County. Here is more from Tom….

This is a panfish cousin of the bluegill.  Also called a “Shellcracker” down south, because of the way they eat.  They grind snails and other small crustaceans up with tiny little “teeth” that line their mouth throat.  They grow bigger than bluegill in most waters but taste just as good.

Hopefully Tom can hold a fish fry at our station. He is famous for frying fish by the weather deck! I am hungry already! Our great weekend weather is about to go from nice to nasty with showers and thunderstorms back in the forecast tonight, but it will be nothing compared to what happened in 1994 when West Lafayette was hit with an F-4 tornado with wind speeds exceeding 200 mph. It all started with an isolated thunderstorm that formed out ahead of the main line of storms. It drew in extra energy and inflow with that second line of storms and quickly went from a non-severe storm to what would become only the third F-4 tornado to hit Tippecanoe County since 1953. The monster tornado took a 14 mile trek across northern Tippecanoe County into White County. It moved northeast crossing Interstate 65 and State Road 43 before finally lifting near state road 18 in Springboro located in White County. Close to 60 buildings and homes were destroyed and 142 badly damaged. Unfortunately there were 3 fatalities and 70 injuries with up to 5 million dollars in damage. I did not live here but I remember waking up and watching an early news program watching the incredible pictures of metal wrapped around trees as far as you can see. There are still debris areas in the forested areas where this killer tornado tracked. Luckily for us here in Tippecanoe County tornadoes of this magnitude only happen about once every 15 years. Since it has been 15 years it is a reminder that we are due for another big one and to have and know your family safety plan. It can save your life. Also, remember this tornado hit very close to midnight. Tornadoes can occur any time of day or night, 12 months out of the year in Lafayette. Tonight we will take a closer look at this infamous tornado on tonight’s newscasts.

Speaking of severe weather there were 180 storm reports across the country yesterday that included 11 tornadoes. Here at home I do not think we will have any severe weather thanks to the big heat ridge that brought us our very nice and warm weekend. This ridge is no match for the cold front moving our way and with all of today’s high cirrus clouds it will help keep our atmosphere more stable. Our winds are unidirectional and by time the front arrives late tonight the upper-level dynamics and highest upper-level wind speeds will have lifted well to our north and west around the periphery of this huge weather-maker that certainly brought us a nice taste of summer over the weekend.  Since we will not have those higher wind speeds aloft and lack of dynamics I am not expecting any rotating thunderstorms or downbursts, but we should have at least a few scattered thunderstorms across the area. Most of the rain should hold off until after 8 p.m. tonight. Tune in and check back here on the blog to find out why we may have better chances of strong storms by late this week and if we will clear out in time for all of those weekend plans including the min-marathon.

Have a great day and I am so excited I just found out 130,000 dollars was raised at this past weekend’s March for Babies. WLFI anchor Sue and I had a great time and we have done this event for at least the past 9 years. Way to go Lafayette! This town rocks and it has to be the volunteer capital of the country! It was a lot of fun walking with all the great people of Lafayette and I am relieved the rain held off despite those ominous clouds. This is my last week on the air and it will be an extra emotional one for me that is for sure but together I have found out we can get through anything. Let’s make this a great week! I am also excited I will get to see my family again soon, finally. It has been really rough not seeing my wife, daughters, and dog.  I know they had fun at the beach this weekend and my daughters saw their first armadillo. I enjoyed hearing the sea gulls on the phone. I will make sure you can follow me on twitter (I will atually start updating it this week and see how it goes) and of course I will start up another blog to compliment the Lafayette weather blog. It should be fun. I cannot even begin to thank all my friends here in Lafayette. You will always be like my extended family. These 10 years have been more about this great community, the great people, and wonderful places Indiana has to offer. Yes, the weather is absolutely awesome but you are even better without a doubt! I wish I could take all of you to Indiana.

Here is my new twitter account you can follow me on: http://twitter.com/MikePrangley

I am checking in with you briefly here in the wee hours before today’s big March for the Babies at Tippecanoe Fairgrounds at 8:30 a.m. I will get some rest but not before I show you this picture of maybe the biggest morel mushroom ever harvested!  This monster mushroom was found near Terre Haute! This picture was sent in to us from our sister station WTHI! It is as big as a basketball and weighed in at 6 pounds!! Let’s take a closer look at it below!

We were talking about a record harvest this year and we are off to a rousing start. Richard Beedle had a great day mushroom hunting today closer to home in Fountain County. Take a look at not only the impressive numbers but his equipment.

Richard did a good job educating me on what we are looking at and how it works!

Those trays are slotted so air will flow through them. The base puts out the warm air. This specific dehydrator has a low switch for fruits and vegetables. The High switch is for doing meat for instance beef jerky. The top has holes around it for the air and moisture to escape. There are 5 trays total and I ended up with 4. It is amazing to see how much the shrink.

-Richard

That is incredible and here is what is left of those mushrooms after the dehydrator gets a hold of them! Thanks as always Richard.

This will be a weekend of challenging records of all kinds including our temperatures. Notice Friday’s highs below and even though Lafayette hit 83 we had a couple weather watchers call in highs of 84 near Monticello where there was more sunshine.

The big thing to notice is St. Louis hit a high of 90 degrees. This is what direction our weather is coming from so if we get enough sunshine I really do think we can push the upper 80s to near 90 at home. I kept highs of 85 on Saturday and 86 Sunday in Lafayette but I still think a couple of our normally warmer locations could register a high of 87 and even 88 near Williamsport and Crawfordsville. Lafayette’s record high for Saturday is 89 set back in 1986 while Sunday’s record high is 88 degrees. They are certainly in jeopardy.

Here is a picture of the Indianapolis 500 Track that so many Lafayette area runners will be racing around just one week from today and I know a lot of folks will be training out in that heat and humidity today so make sure you know that no matter how good of shape you think you are in our Hoosier bodies are just not used to the heat and humidity about to hit us in this forecast. It hit me hard in Florida during my marathon in January so to help you get to next week’s race all in one piece here are some running tips for this weekend:

1) TRY TO RUN BEFORE 10 A.M. AND AFTER 4 P.M. BECAUSE THE ACTUAL FEEL’S LIKE TEMPERATURE FOR RUNNERS WILL REACH 100 to 110 degrees WHICH CAN CAUSE HEAT STROKE. This is a special formula I have come up with over the years.

2) Apply plenty of sports sunscreen with a sunburn possible in just under 30 minutes today and Sunday.

3) Make sure you have plenty of water well before, during, and after your run. Try to mix in a sports drink to keep your electrolytes at a higher level and do not be crazy like me and go totally all out. I want you to save it for the last 3 miles of the INDY MINI next week so we have good representation as always from the Lafayette area.

Now last night on the newscast I talked about this being a pattern that give meteorologists extra gray hairs. Well I stand by that because we have a meandering front too close for comfort just to our north as you see below.

We will have complexes of storms skirting to our north most of the weekend and with all of our heat and humidity in place we cannot totally rule out an isolated shower or thunderstorm. Right now I put our chances at a low 20% but will continue to watch it closely. This front will not make a true move on our area until later Monday night and Tuesday and that is when I am expecting our most significant chance of rain.

Our severe chances should remain on the low side as the main trough stays to our west next week but we will monitor it closely because you never let your guard down in Indiana.

No doubt about it! Our main weather makers this weekend will be the wind with gusts of 35 mph possible Saturday and Sunday afternoon and the UV Index which will be the highest it has been all year. Justin New works his magic again taking a picture of the flags blowing stiffly in the wind on Friday due to our TEXAS EXPRESS! Remember the sunscreen and the old saying, “it is not the heat but the humidity”. We usually wait until June to say this but this really fits the pattern and they are your weather words of the weekend. Take care and I look forward to checking back in with you from time to time if those storms take more of a turn toward us. Have a great weekend!

Here is a list of the top songs and television shows from 1989 or the last time we had temperatures this warm during the last week of April!

Top Songs

1.”My Prerogative” … Bobby Brown
2.”Two Hearts” … Phil Collins
3.”When I’m With You” … Sheriff
4.”Lost in Your Eyes” … Debbie Gibson
5.”The Living Years” .. Mike and the Mechanics
6.”Eternal Flame” … Bangles
7.”The Look” … Roxette
8.”She Drives Me Crazy” … Fine Young Cannibals
9.”Like a Prayer” … Madonna
10.”I’ll Be There for You” … Bon Jovi

Most Popular Television Shows

Larry Rose shares some of my favorite flowers that were in full bloom in the sunshine yesterday. Yes!  The bleeding hearts were out in full force along with some Spring sunshine. It is hard to believe how far we have come in such a short time. We had spits of snow and sleet on Tuesday and it felt more like autumn and winter at times. A big 20 degree jump in our high temperatures yesterday brought Spring back into the area. We will experience four seasons in four days because our highs will be about 40 degrees warmer on Friday making it feel more like summer. It will be one of our warmest late April stretches of weather since 1987. I love that year. It is the year I graduated from high school. Well, it was worth the wait.

It is warming up so quickly apparently the squirrels have not even had time to take off their ear muffs! I want to thank Niccole Caan’s Mom for sending this in to WLFI. She made this squirrel with all natural products. I would love to know how she did this and how long it took her. Hopefully she writes in and shares this with us! Niccole’s Mom knows how much we love talking about weather and nature, including the squirrels. Well, do not expect much activity from the squirrels until next week. The squirrels can finally sleep in for once. LOL

You can see why the squirrels are confused. This is not any typical pattern. We have a summer-like ridge taking up thousands of miles of real estate on the map below and it is rolling our way. This sprawling high pressure you see below causes air to compress and sink and really heat up in a hurry.

We have temperatures warming up to near 90 in the Dakotas today with the big heat dome extending well up into Canada. You see how this big ridge is pushing our winter and autumn weather well to our east, while Spring and now Summer bear down on our area. This pattern is more typical of summer, not April.  You can see why below. Nature has outraced the calendar just in time for Grand Prix weekend. Lafayette’s average temperatures usually do not reach the middle to upper 80s until July. This year we do not have to wait that long!

This coming up Grand Prix weekend could be the warmest ever as forecast highs are expected to reach July levels! This powerhouse weather-maker or high pressure not only will bring us some incredibly warm weather but it will help us stay dry at least through Sunday.  It will take time for this high pressure to break down and move east because it is so strong. Our weather team is proud to be the first team to tell you it will stay dry this weekend and we will stick to that forecast. This is great news for the farmers that are itching to get out in the fields but have not been able to do so with all of our stormy weather. Those big puddles in the fields should dry up in a hurry!

Make those plans now for a wonderful weekend and do not forget to do some stargazing over the next few nights. We have the Lyrid meteor shower from now through Sunday. Even better, the new moon phase will coincide with this meteor shower and the mostly clear skies expected for the next several nights we are sitting pretty for several great shows in our night sky. The best viewing is just after midnight until about 6 a.m. Here are some more cool meteor shower facts below.

I am looking for some pictures. We all remember the great job Monty Sloan did of capturing the Perseid meteor shower back in August. Look for more beautiful displays like this one below at Wolf Park. The Lyrid meteors are sometimes known for leaving smoke trails in the sky. Now that would be something worth trying to snap a picture of.  I would love to show it here on the weather blog!

Now tonight despite a quiet weather pattern you have to tune in to find out when this pattern will break and when it does if we will have to worry about severe weather. It has been far too quiet this year and that is what worries me. I will be working extra hard on this quiet day to make sure we are prepared when this nice summer weather bubble bursts which we will know will happen. I will see you soon. Have a great day! Our inspirational weather quote has been replaced today with Richard Beedle’s even more inspiring morel mushroom update. Richard harvested over 2 pounds of morels yesterday or almost 300 as you see below! I hope that was a sturdy table. This verifies our forecast of a great year and it will only get better over the next few days!

I am all of a sudden really hungry. It is a good thing Richard is not just a blogger but a friend. Any morel recipes out there to share? Blog away and I will see you soon. Take care.

Here is our beautiful planet from the Space Shuttle courtesy of NASA. It is a big day today! It is Earth Day! It has become the world’s largest secular modern day holiday that is celebrated by 1 billion people in 180 countries. It had humble beginnings on April 22, 1970 when 20 million people celebrated it here in the United States thanks to Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin who gave folks a forum and a special day where they could raise concerns about the trashing of our land, lakes, oceans, and atmosphere. It created quite a stir and had a huge domino effect! By the end of 1970 it helped lead to the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency. This in turn quickly led to the passage of Endangered Species Acts and the protection and cleaning up of our breath-taking planet. Today here are a few tidbits to keep in mind that may help you make a some important decisions as to how you personally can help the planet earth not just on Earth Day but throughout the year.

·The energy we save when we recycle one glass bottle is enough to light a traditional light bulb for four hours.

·For every 2000 pounds of paper (1 ton) recycled, we save 7,000 gallons of water free from chemicals.

·Recycled paper requires 64% less energy than making paper from virgin wood pulp, and can save many trees.

·Every ton of paper that is recycled saves 17 trees.

· The amount of wood and paper we throw away is enough to heat 50 million homes for 20 years.

· Earth is 2/3 water. but all the fresh water streams only represent one hundredth of one percent.

· 14 billion pounds of trash is dumped into the ocean every year.
· It takes 90% less energy to recycle aluminum cans than to make new ones.
· 5 billion aluminum cans are used each year

· 84 percent of all household waste can be recycled.

· Computers pose an environmental threat because much of the material that makes them up is hazardous. A typical monitor contains 4-5 pounds of lead.

· Each year billions of used batteries are thrown away in the United States. This constitutes 88% of the mercury and 54% of the cadmium deposited into our landfills.

· Approximately only 10 percent of every landfill can be cleaned up.

· Ivory comes from dead elephants, its best not to buy it.
· Fur coats often come from endangered animals, it’s best not to buy them.
· One gallon of motor oil can contaminate up to 2 million gallons of water. so dispose of properly!
· Here is an example of the water we use everyday:
3-7 gallons for toilet,
25-30 gallons for tub,
50-70 gallons for a 10 minute shower,
1 washing machine load uses 25-40 gallons,
1 dishwasher load uses 9-12 gallons
· Here is an example of how long it takes some things take to break down:
plastics take 500 years,
aluminum cans take 500 years,
organic materials, take 6 months,
cotton, rags, paper take 6 months.

Remember Earth Day is everyday. We all need to pitch in no matter if the forecast is cold, wet, windy, or hot. It is all we got. Kevin McDonald of TEMA reminds of that the more we give the more we get back. How about the four pounds of mushrooms he caught over the weekend! Great job! Kevin should have no problem collecting up to 100 pounds of mushrooms this season. He usually averages close to 80 pounds. This year is expected to bring a bumper crop of morels according to the experts in the field that includes botanists from Ball State. Apparently we have had perfect growing conditions for these delicacies.  I may be going on my first morel mushroom hunting excursion and will have more details on this in the near future here on the blog. I am gearing up and ready to go! It is too good to pass up that is for sure, especially with the record year expected and the incredible weather on the way. We are going from January to July in just a matter of days with record highs not out of the question on Saturday. Nature has lambasted with snow, sleet, hail, wind, lightning, rain…you name it! The only thing we have not seen this week is freezing rain, so we might as well add an early season heat wave to the mix! Our weather in the Midwest is absolutely crazy which is just the way I like it! We will have a squirrel update coming your way here on the blog with just how those critters are dealing with this. It should be interesting that is for sure.

The highest temperature I could find on Tuesday was 107 degrees in Thermal California with dozens of records shattered out West! Notice the impressive 102 in Phoenix, and not even the beaches provided much relief with a high of 94 degrees in Long Beach. The heat ridge or high pressure that smashed 50 year records will move our way over the next few days as our cut-off upper-level low pressure system finally moves off to the East. You see this early season heat wave moving our way by late week and this weekend below! The maps are on fire!

You see a ring of fire setting up above with some severe weather possible for the high Plains by late week. This front will slow down and weaken as it moves our way. The question is how much will it have left when it gets here and will it hold off until after this upcoming weekend. Stay tuned for this tonight! We will also watch the record books closely with temperatures not far from Saturday’s record high which is 89 this weekend. I know I am going way above most of the other forecasts out there on temperatures but I really believe the weather models will be playing catch-up since most of our model guidance has trouble with air mass changes this time of year. With temperatures reaching 57 degrees at 5,000 feet, a warm wind, and plenty of sunshine you can certainly add 30 degrees this time of year to come up with a forecast for surface temperatures.  This is how I came up with a forecast high of 87 degrees for Saturday. We will see how it works out! Right now I am bullish on the numbers while most other forecasts hold us near 80 degrees. It will be fun to watch this unfold. I do my own forecast and I will stand by it!

One thing is for sure and that is we will have the warmest weather in over six months coming our way. Could we see unusually strong wind gusts accompany this early season warm spell? Will we have to worry about severe weather? I will answer these questions and more on tonight’s newscasts and more including a meteor shower you need to look for in the Lafayette area skies!

See you soon and blog away on this fine weather day! It is time to get ready for a nice run! You have a perfect day to ride your bike to work on Earth Day and it will be a day you can just get outside and really take in all the great things nature has to offer!

Your inspirational weather quote of the day:

Lose yourself in nature! Take time out to look and listen closely to what nature is trying to tell you and find peace!